Israel’s first king enters the story looking for his father’s lost donkeys. Saul is a head taller than everyone and handsome with it, but modest — “am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes?” Samuel anoints him, the Spirit of God comes on him, and “God gave him another heart.” He even prophesies with a band of prophets, and people who knew him ask in astonishment: is Saul also among the prophets? Then, on his coronation day, they find him hiding in the luggage.
A study in 1 Samuel 9-10 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
Go Seek The Asses
“Now the LORD had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came, saying, To morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin… And when Samuel saw Saul, the LORD said unto him, Behold the man whom I spake to thee of! this same shall reign over my people.”
1 Samuel 9:15-17
Saul is out on a farm errand — three days chasing stray donkeys — and a servant’s casual suggestion to ask “the man of God” walks him into the town where Samuel is, at the very hour God had named the day before. Nothing in the chapter looks like providence from the inside: it looks like lost livestock and a lucky guess. God’s appointments often do.
Am Not I A Benjamite, Of The Smallest Of The Tribes?
“And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? wherefore then speakest thou so to me?”
1 Samuel 9:21
When Samuel hints at the throne, Saul’s reaction is real humility — smallest tribe (Benjamin had nearly been wiped out in Judges 20), least family. This is the Saul the book wants us to remember at the end: he did not start out grasping. The self a person is at the beginning, before power, is worth marking, because it is what power will test.
“The listener’s heart thrilled at the prophet’s words… Yet with modest self-depreciation Saul replied, ‘Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel?’”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 609
God Gave Him Another Heart
“And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee… and shalt be turned into another man… And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.”
1 Samuel 10:6, 9
This is not political stagecraft. Ellen White reads it as something like a conversion: as Saul worshipped with the prophets, “a great change was wrought in him by the Holy Spirit… He saw himself as he was before God.” He was given a new heart, the Spirit, courage, a glimpse of the plan of salvation. Saul was equipped for the throne with everything a man could need — which is exactly why his ruin later is so sobering. A good start, even a Spirit-given one, is not a guarantee.
“As Saul united with the prophets in their worship, a great change was wrought in him by the Holy Spirit. The light of divine purity and holiness shone in upon the darkness of the natural heart. He saw himself as he was before God. He saw the beauty of holiness.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 610
Is Saul Also Among The Prophets?
“Then the people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?… And the LORD answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff… And all the people shouted, and said, God save the king.”
1 Samuel 10:11, 22, 24
The old neighbours cannot square the Saul they knew with the man singing among the prophets, and their surprise becomes a proverb. Then, at the public choosing by lot at Mizpeh, the winner is missing — “he hath hid himself among the stuff,” crouched behind the baggage. It is charming and a little worrying at once: the same man who does not want the crown will one day cling to it past all reason. Israel shouts “God save the king” over a king pulled out of the luggage.
